“The Rosie Project” // Graeme Simsion (2014)

Last week, I published a post about books I wanted to read this summer and “The Rosie Project” was one of them. This book had been on my “To Read”-list for quite some time, but I never really got to reading it. Fortunately, I spent the last couple of days in the woods, where I had plenty of time to read and enjoy this marvelous book.

In 2015, Australian author Graeme Simsion published his first novel, “The Rosie Project”. The story follows Don Tillman, a handsome and socially awkward genetics professor, who has a little bit of trouble engaging in serious romantic relationships with women. After numerous, rather hilarious, attempts to find a suitable partner, Don sets up The Wife Project. Together with his friend Gene and his wife Claudia, they write a questionnaire, which should lead to the perfect life partner for Don.

But then he meets Rosie. She is a twenty-something bartender, who is on a quest to look for her biological father. Don, who is a genetics genius, decides to help her. Rosie is everything Don did not want in a woman, but nevertheless, she becomes a big part of his life. Maybe even forever…

To be perfectly honest with you, there is not a single thing I disliked about “The Rosie Project”. It is a warm and funny story about a man looking for love and finding it in the unlikeliest of places (from Don’s perspective, naturally, because the reader can see it coming from miles away).

“The Rosie Project” is a lovely, lovely book, which will infinitely entertain you. As Don and Rosie embark on their journey to find her biological father, they encounter a series of both hilarious and unexpected events, such serving cocktails to university graduates to steal DNA from Rosie’s possible fathers and a trip to New York City. The two, as different as they may be, grow closer and as a reader, you are rooting for Don to get the girl. This makes you feel so engaged with the story and its characters, that as soon as you open the book, you are in the story and you are experiencing Don and Rosie’s love story as if it were your own.

The greatest part of the book, however, is the fact that Simsion wrote it so skillfully. His characters are breathtakingly real and he makes it easy for you to understand Don’s motives and behavior (even though Don does not understand it himself most of the times). Don, who is a grown, undiagnosed autistic genetics professor, is a difficult character, but the author has managed to make him real and understandable. “The Rosie Project” is entirely written from Don’s perspective and the language Simsion uses is perfectly pitched.

“The Rosie Project” is a heart-warming and hilarious story, with incredibly realistic characters and impressive writing. Fortunately, you can enjoy Don and Rosie’s love story even more, because there is a sequel to the book, titled “The Rosie Effect”, which will answer all the questions you are left with after reading the first installment. But that is not all, as the book is being adapted into a film. Last month, Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook) was cast as Rosie.

Did you already read “The Rosie Project”? Or is it on your To Read list? Do you think Jennifer Lawrence was well casted to play Rosie? Let me know in the comments!